Josh Allen not worried about the curse of being on Madden cover

Josh Allen, the star quarterback of the Bills, admitted that he learned the game of football by playing Madden. He vividly remembered how Marshall Faulk was on the cover that year, back when he and his brother used to square off against each other.

Allen loves the idea of being the cover boy of the popular video game. And he scoffs at the idea that there’s such thing as the Madden curse. (Maybe somebody should tell him what happened to Faulk when he was on the cover two decades ago).

“No (the curse) it was done and over with,” Josh Allen said in the most recent edition of “Bussin with the Boys.”

“Pat and Tom broke that a few years ago. I’m not supposed to be in the league, I’m not supposed to be here.”

So maybe Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes did rid the football world of the curse when the two quarterbacks appeared on the cover of the 2022 game. They represented the recent past and the future of the best in NFL quarterbacks. Between the two, they have nine Super Bowl rings. And they maintained that greatness, post Madden cover.

But seriously, the Madden Curse is either one excessively long coincidence or a baffling supernatural kind of malediction. Just look at what happened after EA Sports announced that Lion great Barry Sanders would be on the cover for its 2000 edition. The jinx was so strong that Sanders didn’t even play in 2000. He abruptly retired in the summer of 1999 despite being one really good season from breaking Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record. Instead, Emmitt Smith surpassed Sweetness in 2002.

Titans running back Eddie George earned cover honors in 2001. And although his rushing numbers were stout, his fumbles sky rocketed.

Then there was the season Marshall Faulk went through following his Madden cover. That’s the season Josh Allen played so often. Allow Allen to tell it:

“It’s weird. As a kid, you play this game,” Allen said during the podcast. “That’s how I learned the game of football. All the rules, roughing the passer. Going and playing against my brother. It’s kind of come full circle. Learn to play on Madden, now I’m on the cover. Some kid will say I learned to play when Josh Allen was on the cover. Mine was 03 Marshall Faulk. I vividly remember that cover. It was surreal.”

Faulk had rolled to five straight 1,000 yard seasons, which is why the Madden folks put him on the cover. Then post cover, he never surpassed 1,000 yards again. Yep, there’s nothing to that cover jinx.

Maybe Josh Allen can use the cover as a reverse jinx. Stick with us on this. Allen and the Bills limped out of the playoffs, falling at home to the Bengals, 27-10, in the second round of the playoffs. Buffalo fans were hoping for the Super Bowl. Instead, they watched as the Bills barely put up an effort o,n a snowy day in Buffalo. So maybe Madden merely flips the script.